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Sunday, 6 November 2016

A tribute to Brian Hill

Brian Hill

Born 31 July 1941

Died 27 October 2016

Brian Hill was a
footballer from bygone era. A modest, loyal, hard-working, self
effacing man dedicated to his sport. He passed away last week aged 75
after a long fight with Alzheimer's. Between 1958 and 1970 he made
286 appearances for Coventry City, playing in every outfield position
and appearing in five different divisions of the League as well as
playing European football in that memorable 1970-71 season. He was
never a spectacular player but always got through a prodigious amount
of work and though often under-appreciated by the fans he was a key
man in Jimmy Hill’s team of the 1960s.

Until 16-year olds Gary
McSheffrey, Ben Mackey and Jonson Clark-Harris came on to the first
team scene as substitutes Brian was Coventry City’s youngest ever
player. He held the record for forty years since his goalscoring
debut against Gillingham in 1958 and remains to this day the youngest
ever starter for the club as well as the youngest goalscorer.

He was still three
months short of his seventeenth birthday when he made his debut in
what was City’s last ever game in the old Division Three South. The
old South and North sections were reorganised into the new Divisions
Three and Four in the summer of 1958 and a poor City side had failed
to finish in the top half of the table, which would have qualified
them to be in Division Three. It had been a miserable season - a
thirteen-game run without a win from Boxing Day to mid-March had
consigned them to the new basement division – and manager Billy
Frith, who had taken over a shambles the previous September, was
already planning for the new league by blooding youngsters.

Brian had been
impressive in the FA Youth Cup playing at centre-forward and scoring
four goals in three ties that season. Looking back Brian had only dim
and distant memories, he told me some years ago, “I think I only
got a game because the season was as good as over and it was a chance
for the manager to look at some of the kids. I had barely played for
the reserves before and it was a big surprise to play for the
first-team.”

Born in Bedworth, Brian
was a prolific sportsman at Nicholas Chamberlain School, representing
Warwickshire Schools at football and cricket. After leaving school in
1956 Brian went to work at the Jaguar factory but after a few months
he was invited to trials with City and was offered an apprentice
contract. In April 1958 with both main strikers Ray Straw and Jimmy
Rogers injured Frith decided to play Brian at inside-right and his
namesake Ray at centre-forward in the final game on a warm early
summer’s evening in Kent. Ray was six years older than Brian and
had played ten games since joining from Redditch Town the previous
November. With Peter Hill at inside-left City played three Hills in
the side for the first time.

Brian had a dream start
to his career when, with only seven minutes on the clock he scored.
Nemo in the Coventry Evening Telegraph described it in glowing
terms.

“He took just seven
minutes to score, and what a peach of a goal it was. The ball came
down the middle. Brian took it in his stride and drove it grass-high
into the corner with the aplomb of a veteran.”

City were well on top
for the first half an hour, playing, according to the match report,
some of their best football for weeks but after the interval the home
side picked their game up and they won the game 3-2.

For the next four
seasons Brian struggled on as an average inside or outside left but
played less than 40 first team games. In November 1961 he was at
inside left in the side beaten by Kings Lynn in that infamous FA Cup
tie that heralded the departure of Frith and the arrival of Jimmy
Hill as manager.

Jimmy watched that game
incognito in the stands and later in his autobiography wrote:
'against Northampton....I picked my first league eleven, dropping
Brian Hill from the number 9 position, in which he had played against
Kings Lynn, and telling him that when he came back into the side it
would be to stay, but positively not as a striker'.

This is one of the
first examples of Jimmy's uncanny ability to identify the best
position for players – later examples were Dietmar Bruck, Mick
Kearns and Dave Clements. Hill, recognising Brian's strength as his
major asset, converted him into a defensive half-back and he took to
the new role like a duck to water. In the 1962-63 season he became a
regular in the team playing 47 games, earning a reputation as a tough
tackling man-marker, he was even tipped for England under-23 honours
in 1965.

Brian was first choice
at either wing-half or full-back until 1967 except when his niggling
hamstring injuries kept him on the sidelines but it seemed whenever
he returned to the side their fortunes picked up. If there was a key
man to be marked Brian usually got the job and he had some memorable
tussles with Manchester United’s Dennis Law and Tottenham’s Jimmy
Greaves and usually came out on top.

Fan David Walker
remembers Brian with fondness and especially the Manchester United FA
Cup tie in 1963 when Brian marked Denis Law, at the time the most
expensive footballer in British football and the deadliest of
strikers. 'Brian was one of the most under-rated players we ever had.
My assessment of Brian was that often you hardly knew he was on the
pitch, but his opposite number would hardly get a look in all match,
such was his efficiency as a defender. Perhaps the most over-riding
memory was the famous cup tie against Manchester United in 1963. We
may have lost, but standing there, on the terraces, I remember that
at the end of the match, as the players came off, Denis Law, who had
had a very quiet game, picked up a handful of mud and threw it at
Brian!Frustration coming out perhaps.'

After promotion in 1967
Hill did not look out of his depth in the First Division and had a
dramatic moment at Fulham when he came off the substitute’s bench
to score his first league goal for over four years to earn City a
valuable point. In his last two years he was restricted to 13
appearances and normally called upon to do specific marking jobs. He
was only on the losing side twice during that period and there were
some memorable marking jobs that he carried out. In March 1970 he put
a dent in Everton's championship hopes with his “job” on Alan
Ball in the 0-0 draw at Goodison and in one of his final games at
Anfield later that year he was lauded for his performance in another
0-0 that earned the Sky Blues' first ever point at the ground. In the
same month he was on the winning side as City beat Bayern Munich 2-1
in the home second leg of their Fairs Cup tie.

The club laid on a
deserved testimonial game for him in 1969 with Brian Clough’s Derby
County providing the opposition in a 1-1 draw.

His final game was on
Boxing Day 1970 in a 1-1 home draw with West Brom when he conceded
the penalty that gave the Baggies a point. In March 1971 he went on
loan to Bristol City, managed by Alan Dicks, his former assistant
manager at Coventry, and helped them to avoid relegation to Division
3. Later that year he joined Fourth Division Torquay United for
£5,000 but lived and trained in Coventry for two years making over
50 appearances for the Gulls.

Four City players
played in all four divisions of the league during City’s rise from
1958 to 1967, Hill, George Curtis, Ron Farmer and Mick Kearns, and
Brian was the last one of the famous four to leave the club. The four
made over 1500 appearances for the club between them and his
departure brought the famous era of the club to an end.

One of the famous four,
Ron Farmer, told me, 'Brian was a quiet lad, I never saw him lose his
temper on or off the pitch and I can't remember him having a bad
game. He was a great tackler and Jimmy always had him mark the
opponent's danger man. I'm very sad to hear of his death'.

Mick Kearns made his
debut a few months before Brian and the pair played together many
times. He talked affectionately about Brian, 'Off the field he was
the most unassuming man, there was no side to him and he never get
ruffled. On the pitch he was a great athlete who always gave 100% and
would play whatever role he was asked to do'.

Another friend and
playing colleague was Bill Tedds who grew up with Brian in Bedworth
and followed him to Highfield Road as an apprentice. 'Brian and I
were very close in our teens, we did everything together, even going
on holiday with each other. He wasn't the tallest player but he was
as strong as an ox and ideally suited to be a defender. He was
fanatical about weight-lifting and I'm sure that was the cause of
some of his muscle injuries. But for injuries I'm sure he would have
won international honours for England.'

After two seasons at
Torquay at the age 31 Brian retired from the professional game and
returned to the Midlands. He went to work at Jaguar and played
briefly for Bedworth United, who were managed by his former City
teammate Gerry Baker.

He worked on the Jaguar
production line for 18 years and then had ten years as a driver for
HSBC Bank before retiring in 2003. He leaves his wife Margaret, a
son, two daughters and six grandchildren who, in his retirement, he
doted on.

Brian's funeral takes
place on Tuesday 15 November at 10.15 at All Saints Church in
Bedworth, followed by a cremation. I am sure there will be a big turn
out of friends and former colleagues for a great servant of Coventry
City.

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About Me

I have supported Coventry City FC since my first visit to Highfield Road in 1962. I am the club's official historian and have a regular column in the Coventry Telegraph. Here I would like to enable my readers who can't buy the paper to access my columns and comment.